Mech's Training Log

[pat05005]

Monday September 13.

Scratch the video log. My friend was busy and couldn't make it. I plan on repeating todays workout wednesday and friday so I'll try and get the vid up on one of those two days.

The purpose of this log is to not only help me keep track of my own workout but I also want put my experience and knowledge up. I feel like there's just too little material available that needs to otherwise obtained from a coach.

Threshold WORKOUT

Warm up - 15 minute jump rope.
The objective of warming up is to increase blood circulation to your body... steadily. You don't want to go right into your workout without a warm up, it's any easy way to injure yourself. You're also shocking your body too much and won't be able to complete the workout as intended. You want to increase your core temperature 2 or 3 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes minutes. So make sure that you not only break a sweat but that you keep on sweating well after the warm up.

Workout - 5 hills. Hard on the way up, easy on the way down.
The objective is to finish the 5 hills. A secondary objective is to do as many hills as hard as you can. You want to reach your lactate threshold as fast as possible. Once you reach your lactate threshold you can finish the rest of the hills at an easy pace. To work beyond your lactate threshold will lead to shutting your body down. This will compromise the rest of the workout and possibly workouts later in the week. It takes time for your body to flush the lactate acid from your body as your working out. Maintaining an easy pace once you reach your threshold allows you to just flutter around your bodies limits without actually pushing it beyond what it can handle. As you perform threshold workouts more your body will flush itself faster.

Today it took 1 1/2 hills to reach threshold. 3 hills were completed before throwing up. When an athlete throws up discontinue the current workout and allow the athlete to rehydrate. Lots of fluids are lost when a person throws up and can lead to heat exhaustion.

Unless you have expensive equipment it's hard to accurately know when threshold is reached. A good indication is when you're gasping for air through your mouth. Breathing should always be in through your nose and out through your mouth. When you're forced to start breathing in through your mouth you know you're in the area.

When running hills, stare into and through the hill at eye level and run with high knees.

Hill is approximately 75 meters long with a pitch I'm guessing anywhere between 25-30 degrees (it's steep).

Afterwards, this was the interval workout performed.
3 minutes - sun gods with a brick in each hand.
3 mins - jump rope
3 mins - abs performed ring side w/ your feet held by your partner
3 mins - jump rope
3 mins - body squat
3 mins - jump rope
3 mins - round abouts with a brick in each hand.
3 mins - jump rope
3 mins - plancks
3 mins - jump rope
3 mins - monkey fuckers

Here's the break down of the workout above. Every exercise performed, other than the jump roping, must be done all out. The goal is to reach lactate threshold. When you're jump roping, just have a decent pace. This workout is meant to mimic a boxing match... except for the 3 minute breaks for jump roping. The exercises all out mimic the time spent in the ring boxing IN TERMS of reaching threshold. The 3 minute breaks for jump roping are longer than what's given as a break during a match, BUT the jump roping is meant to keep you fluttering around your threshold when you would otherwise be sitting a on stool resting up. If you get bored doing the jump roping do some footwork i.e. criss crosses, shuffling, high knees, double unders etc.

There was a 10 minute rest between the hills and the interval training.


Thoughts on cross training. Sports science has come a long way. The boxing gym I've been going to nearly everyday the past 3 months has surprised me in how antiquated it is. Now I don't mean that the gym is old or the equipment is old, but that there methods/programs are just outdated especially compared to the programs college coaches employ. Several ideas I'll throw out there I know will not be accepted.

Slack lining. As much as jumping rope will give you the "pop" you need in your step to throw a good jab it will not workout the muscles required to plant your feet firmly into the ground. Slack lining helps develop all the stabilizing muscles from the knee down. You will simultaneously be working out other muscle groups as well such as your abdomen, thighs, and quads, while working on your balance.